Did we always smell so good? Well according to the stories told throughout history the answer is no. Cave dwellers lived with their animals. I don’t think of this as a scented environment especially when history tells of that water was used more for drinking not bathing. The same thing goes for the Elizabethan Age. Flowers were used as nose guards because the stench in the air was so great.

What does the word Perfume mean? According to the latin language, the word “perfume”(parfum) means “through the smoke”. Religious services introduced the art of scent blends and perfumes to the masses. The incense were used to cleans the air and smudge the environment. Scented oils were placed in the tombs with the pharaohs, by the Egyptian Priest, in preparation for the afterlife.

Unlike today’s perfume industry where big corporations are in charge of the recipes(for lack of a better word), the Priest were in charge of these secrets during the time of the Pharaohs. The Egyptians are known as the Masters of Perfumery. The essential oils used in perfumery at that time were as valuable as Gold. The oils were treated as personal’s, no trip was taken without an assortment of essential oils.

The Egyptian Priest had laboratories that would rival today’s perfume industry labs. The difference being, no synthetics blends were used. In order to extract the oils from the different plants, one had to use steam distillation or enflourage. So many of the perfumes found in the Tombs of the Pharaohs were solid in nature. They would melt upon contact with the skin but they were not liquid when first discovered.

This brings us back to what we refer to as solid perfumes. When coconut oil is used in a blend, especially if it’s the main carrier oil, your perfume will solidify. But when you rub your fingers across its surface you can feel the blend melting at your touch.

Solid perfumes can be a wonderful way of experiencing and experimenting with essential oils. You can add a few drops of an essential oil to a quarter cup of coconut oil and have an instant solid perfume provided you keep it away from the heat.

The essential oils, especially spikenard can be costly but at 6 drops, the bottle will last you for quite some times. You can create your own single scents. By substituting Rose, Jasmine or any pure essential oil that captures your olfactory gland, add a few drops to some coconut oil and experience your own master scent created just for you.